Birds plan for breakfast

It was once thought that the concept of the future and the ability to plan for …

Lots of animals perform actions that prepare them for future conditions. But in cases like hibernation and migration, it appears that these behaviors are hard-wired and instinctual, which has led some to propose that only humans are able to perform actions that allow them to prepare for the indefinite future by envisioning their future selves. But research that will appear in tomorrow's edition of Nature suggests we aren't actually alone in this ability; instead, it's something we share with the birds.

As a perspective accompanying the article notes, "Two requirements for genuine future planning are that the behaviour involved should be a novel action, or combination of actions (thus ruling out migrating and hibernating), and that it should be appropriate to a motivational state other than the one the animal is in at that moment." Western scrub jays, the birds pictured above, cache food for future use in the wild and have been found to engage in some sophisticated behavior when doing so. For example, they recognize when another jay is watching them and move their caches when not being observed in order to prevent theft. But does all of this involve planning based on future circumstances?

To find out, the researchers trained jays in a three-roomed enclosure. In the mornings, they placed birds in one of the two feeding rooms, one with food, one empty. Once the birds were trained, they began to provide excess food in the evenings. The jays responded by caching three times as much food in the room which would not have food available in the morning.

In a further test, it appears that jays can be motivated by a factor beyond starvation. In further experiments, the jays were provided with different types of food in each of the rooms. When provided with the same two foods in the evenings, the jays arranged their cached food so that they'd have both types of food in each room the next day. Apparently, on some level, they recognize the importance of a balanced diet.

Given our inability to communicate with scrub jays, it's hard to tell whether the birds are engaged in a human-like process of envisioning their future selves, but it's clear that they have some concept of a future on the scale of a day, and can adjust their actions to compensate for predicted needs in that time frame. Given the relatively large evolutionary distance between birds and humans, it seems likely that the mental capacities involved arose independently, but it's probably worth testing some of the species in between in order to determine whether that's actually the case.